Thanks.
I’m watching a few dehydrators on Ebay and Facebook market place. Hopefully a bargain will come along soon. All the Prestos on Ebay uk though are actually in the US.
The Excaliber 9 tray has been on Woot (an Amazon company) for $169. They’re open box items, but I got mine from there and it arrived looking new.
Now that does sound like a bargain! Unfortunately they don’t deliver outside the US. I think a 9 tray excalibur is the way to go though.
I have both 9 tray Excalibur and 10 Tray Ivation, like the latter one much more. Ivation is all stainless steel, while Excalibur is all plastic.
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I have an old el cheapo Nesco that works well enough for my needs. Dead simple and does the job.
EDIT: Haha! I said the same above in 2015. Crazy.
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I have the 4 tray Excalibur, which works well for me. I’m hoping to upgrade to a higher-capacity model at some point. Fortunately, I have at least a few years before my fruit production ramps up enough that I’ll really need it. I look forward to the used market being flooded in a year or two…
I do not own a dehydrator yet.
In the mean time I have been using my toaster oven set at 200 for about 8 hours
(on the convection oven setting to blow the air around)
(I used the big oven as well set at 150 I think.)
Those mini Bell peppers from the health food store taste like candy dried.
(even dried cucumbers in it so worth experiementing if you have not bought one yet.
If I had my own land I always wanted to get a Steel shipping container,
and convert it to a drier with a big fan , and air filter. (/kiln for other use)
Drew I’m using a lot of dried Garlic myself ;lately Made some noodles recently , (Homestyle egg noddles)
and didn’t want to go down stairs at the time to get tomato sauce just added olive oil, and Garlic dried -->(a blend herbs) actually simple, but now I like that better (then the tomato with the noddles)
maybe I’l try some fermented garlic, and try to dry that to see or dry my own on your suggestion.
I think I’d like to get that sausage maker one mentioned When it was I checked them out
time is money so rather use a big one looks well built.
Just a note I have dried sour fruits it preserves the sourness .
We have pea size hard crab apples dried some in a kitchen cabinet in a paper bag (not touching each other much)
they actually get sweet , and lose the sour flavor .
So I wonder if you could Partially dry those grapes after the water content goes down
dry them in a cool place .
I wonder is wild very sour grapes (mustage grapes or river band grapes) would dry without anything (no sun a cool dry place)
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Any oven with an internal fan and a low temperature setting works. Mine has a dehydrate setting that is nothing more then a 120f setting with the convection fan on.
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My first big dehydrator was an 10 tray excalibur in the late70’s. it was wonderful. Gave it to my daughter. It lasted just about 30 yrs. When it died about about 10 - 12 yrs ago, I bought my daughter another excalibur. She loves it!
I downsized to a 4 tray nesco ($60 amazon) which work good and has suited me well. Now that I am retired, I may need a larger unit.
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I have one from LEM products. They make several models now. Mine is a big stainless steel one. Pricey but a real workhorse. The problem is that everyone wants to borrow it.
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Great information and choices. It is better to have real reviews, like here, than reading just some feedback on their sites. Thanks to everyone that has given their advice. They are sort of expensive to just buy and try. If you pick one that does not work well it is just " another kitchen appliance" to have sitting around. I think we probably all have a few kitchen appliances we are not using that are just taking up space. My friend had three bread makers at one time. They are all sitting in their closet now. 